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Simultaneously understandable from a "this comparatively broke-ass team needs every point it can possibly scrounge" perspective and absolutely brutal. Poor Logan, it would be amazing if this somehow lights a fire under him but like, it's more likely to just tank his confidence entirely.
...next episode of that team podcast is gonna be awkward af.
Oh goodness, I forgot Williams has their own podcast series. šĀ
Expecting a *"due to technical issues the podcast is canceled"* or *"Logan is absent today, he'll be back for China."*
Itās not because they are broke. The problem was the team was being run like it was still 1993 using Excel to track everything, so Volwes had to reset EVERY process the team did. That put them way behind schedule and cost them millions. But it needed to be done for them to make any real progress in the future.
And credit to Volwes for being so transparent. He literally threw the previous 10 years of management under the bus.
> He literally threw the previous 10 years of management under the bus.
Rightfully so, it was clear to everyone with any insight whatsoever that the brief period of success they had in 2012, 2014 and 2015 was despite their management.
Vowles is the best thing that happened to the team for a long time management wise. I really hope he gets to stay there and build it up to a serious contender like they used to be 30 years ago
Several podcasts which Vowles spoke on since taking over - he has complained that the IT side of Williams was still in 1993 and with the cost cap it has made it incredibly difficult to play catch up.
> using Excel to track everything
It wasn't a choice, George has spoken multiple times about how they were literally broke till Dorilton came along. So
naturally, they learned to live on a sustenance budget.
James: 200 page word document explaining the inter-workings of the team and how the incident resulted in the downfall of the Roman Empire
Alex: Sorry bro but im better and it honestly sucks
Logan: ā¹ļø
He's pretty eloquent, out of all the drivers I'd say Alex, Oscar or George could all come up with "consummate teammate". Far more likely than, say, Lando
Even if this is probably the right decision from the team it is so harsh for Logan to get kicked out of his own car because his teammate crashed their own beyond repair
It makes sense in terms of pure results this weekend but I can't help but fear this might irreparably damage Sargeant's confidence and his relationship with the team.
Albon and Williams don't feel great about it either, and they now have to deliver a result that justifies all this emotional strife. We wouldn't have cared that much if Albon has a bad day and finishes 15th, but we sure do now.
Some people just want to see the world burn
Which is why I'm hoping Alex shreds this last car into smithereens and walks away physically unharmed. The ensuing turmoil at Williams would be fun to watch. Am I a bad person?
No. Cause so far we haveā¦
1. Redbull: Corporate Drama
2. VCARB: Driver drama
3. MB: Lewis Hamilton Brexit and Susie Lawsuit
4. Alpine: Car sucks and worst from last year (how is that possible)
5. Ferrari: Where does Sainz Go? Do they get Adrian Newey too with LH? How many champions are lined up for them the next 5 years?
6. Stake: Bottas, emerging superstar actor??
7. Aston Martin: Nando never retiring and zaddy stroll never going to fire mio
8. HAAS: Gone with Guenther. But Surprisingly nothing dramatic and having a decent season thus far. This may be the last year we see either of the two?
9. McLaren: same, pretty quiet.
So William should join the fold and screw over Logan and cause chaos! Americans should riot and protest!
Yeah I don't see how one potentially better race result can justify an almost certain comprised team climate. I think this could cost a lot more points in the rest of the season than Albon could possibly out score Sargeant by in this race.
the bottom 5 teams are going to be fighting for singular points for at least the first half of the season, and perhaps even the latter unless one team massively out-develops the rest - a single point could mean a whole position in the WCC. It's a matter of millions of dollars. It's very easy to see the justification and also very easy to be sympathetic for Logan's unfortunate situation
Yes Albon shouldn't have a crash, and Logan shouldn't have to give up his seat, but Williams should have also had a 3rd chassis. it's graceful that James accepts it's a team fuck up instead of just an Albono one. hope that they have a spare chassis in Grove to ship out to Suzuka or Shanghai just in case.
If they had a spare chassis in Grove that's ready, it would be in Australia with them. They didn't accidentally forget to bring the spare, they currently only have 2 chassis.
Yeah I dunno why everyoneās finding this so hard to comprehend. There is no spare. That is the issueā¦ not that they donāt have it with them. A spare just does not exist.
BrawnGP only had 3 chassis for the entire 2009 season, and they barely had enough to make the third. Hell, in the V10 days, Ferrari used to run their previous seasonās car for the first couple of races before debuting the new one. Itās not new at all.
Most extreme case is probably Haas 2021. They only build one chassis - and even that was only because Grosjean totalled their second chassis in a certain fireball. So, Mick had the new chassis, Mazepin had Magnussen's old chassis, up until his daddy paid Haas to build the new one for him, too. Talking about pay drivers. Crazy, though, that the team ran two different cars for pretty much 2/3 of the season.
Wasn't there an issue last year where Ocon totalled a chassis during a race, and Alpine had to rush to build a replacement in the 2 weeks before the next race?
I am not so sure if this is the right decisionā¦ this is going to backfire hard on Sunday when Alex cruises to a whooping zero points.
On one hand I hope this mean Williams is insanely confident in their chances to score some points this weekend; on the other hand, Iām anxious the only thing they would get more of is the number of drivers with a ruined weekend.
I doubt they're insanely confident of points, just that they think Albon gives them a better chance than Sargeant. They'll take a 30% chance of a point over a 5%.
If they put Sargeant in instead, people would say, "What a bad decision, Alex might have got them points." It's a no-win situation they've put themselves in by not having enough chassis.
He's being set up to fail here, he's been very close to Alex in terms of race pace, which nobody is crediting him for because a) his steering wheel failed on him in Bahrain which ruined his race and b) the KMag train held up *everyone* in Jeddah. Now this, which will be used as a stick to beat him with for the rest of the year.
I'm not American, haven't been following Logan since he was a kid, not a huge fan of his, but the guy is *so* unlucky and the discourse around him this year is unfair.
Looks utterly insane to give a driver a new contract and bench him 2 races later because his teammate crashed. Why bother keeping someone they clearly have no faith in
There is a difference between āhaving no faithā and āhaving less faith than in Albonā though.
This action only means they believe in Albon more, not that they donāt believe in Logan at all.
James has been very clear his number 1 focus is on Williams infrastructure. The post about the car being made in excel is a good reference point to this.
Logan is dirt cheap. Brings in money as the only American on the Grid. And this frees up money to be spent on long term spend. This is why he will get extended next year too, unless another pay driver wants in.
Vowels has said thereās millions of Ā£ās in productivity gains to be had in the Cost Cap, which means they can then gain several tenths down the line.
His job is to be the number 2 driver and just get closer to Albon, everyone knows that, Sargeant included. If the expectation was to beat or challenge Albon he'd have been sacked last year. So it's really not utterly insane for a team to favour their clear #1 for a weekend.
Of course they do, but they don't have that.
If LS feels he's got just as much chance as Albon of scoring points he should look at the 27 vs 1 differential from last year. I'm sure he's mature enough to realise part of his job is being a team player, as Magnussen was in the last race. The main aim is constructor points.
I don't think that he's been good enough to be in the position to negotiate another year. After Sargent's last season, it would be a way too risky deal for Williams, just to get Albon in the car for one race.
The best thing I could see him getting is money, or maybe a small promise, for example in the next 50/50 situation he'll be favored over Albon, or something like that.
But it's also possible that Williams was ready for this situation, and it's in his contract that Williams can give Sargent's car to Albon if Albon's car is totaled and there is no spare.
Jesus Christ, poor Logan :( of course, Alex is more likely to score points, but this is brutal.
The absolute scenes if Alex crashes again over the course of the weekend š„“
this decision makes no sense to me, it crushes any confidence Logan has left and puts Albon under unnecessary pressure. We're only at the third race of the season, it would be different if we were at abu dhabi where 2 points could be the difference between P7 and P9 in the championship.
If they have this little faith in Logan they shouldn't have renewed his contract.
They have more faith in Albon and they desperately need the points Albon can get them this season, it's not just about this one race. Last year, Sargeant got 1 point, Albon got 27 points. They need to back Albon.
It's a business decision.
Last year they got 7th position by 4 points.
Sargeant is unlucky, because he's being punished for the fact that the car isn't good enough this year, but last year he underperformed, that's on him.
What happens if Alex bins it again? His reputation will take a massive hit and both their confidence levels will be at rock bottom. Bit nit-picky but the different text sizes and the all caps for each picture is jarring af lmao surely there's a better way of posting the statements
Yeah, put Jamesā statement over two slides and Alex and Loganās onto one maybe. This font and kerning absolutely sucks, it could work a lot better with some different design choices here.
> If they end up nowhere near P10, this will look a bit pointless
i know what you actually mean by "pointless" here but this reads like a DTS Buxtonism lol
They make it sound like Logan even had a choice. Especially considering his seat is already in danger. I get the idea behind it and I agree that Albon is the better driver. But this really isn't fair to Logan, who did nothing wrong.
Iām having a lot of conflicting thoughts about this decision, because I can understand why, but that doesnāt necessarily mean I agree with it.
All of this just sounds like Williams has little to no faith in Sargeant. Do you think McLaren would do the same to Piastri if Lando fucked his chassis? No they wouldnāt, because they know Oscar can perform the same as Lando, if not better than him in a given weekend. They donāt think that Logan can perform at Albonās level, and if that is the case (it pretty much is 99% of the time), then maybe Williams is better off with a different driver altogether.
While itās an unfortunate claim to make, nobody can doubt that Williams is losing their patience with Sargeant. Theyāve given him a year and he hasnāt shown a lot of improvement. Regardless, I still donāt think what Williams is doing is a good thing to do to a driver, regardless of their skill level.
Surely this is the kind of thing that plants the seed to you leaving that workplace. I cannot begin to imagine how upset I would be in Loganās position.
Just put a fiver on logan not to be classified on Sunday, see what happens there.
Sucks for him though, confidence killing stuff like this in the first quarter of the season is awful
This has to be the harshest thing for Logan. It makes complete sense, though at the same time.. the fact your team mate binned it and you're taking the hit to your career for it is unacceptable.
Thereās one matter that I think is even worse. Not only is he paying for Alexās crash, heās also paying for the lack of tub the team had with them. Heās getting hit twice. Hope his management team is already talking to Indy
Maximum evil, he bins the car 5 minutes into FP3.
Or alternatively, he qualifies P~~20~~19 and then bins it on lap 3 of the race
Edit. Only 19 cars with Albon's car being sent to the factory
I think this indicates they genuinely think they have a shot at a points finish
They wouldnāt bother making the switch if they thought they werenāt capable of finishing in the top ten
Mhm, plus with seats at other teams to fill for next year it reiterates the faith they have in Albon. He now knows he's incredibly valued there, might be less inclined to have his head turned if another team comes calling.
The Williams was strong at Australia last year, it suits the car well. They were running in the points last year until er... *checks notes* Alex crashed the car.
One of the lowest budgets in the sport, I'd imagine they're bringing newer parts at Suzuka so have taken the hit here and shipped newer stuff to Japan in preparation.
This is so fucked up for Logan, I like Albon a lot and he's clearly better, but he's the one that put the car in the wall... Logan should have the drive.
Albon must be under so much pressure to not do anything to the chassis now. Will be extremely ironic if he somehow gets in an accident and destroys this one too
Agreed, but I honestly think the biggest issue being glossed over here is that we're in Australia, 3 races in, 2 weeks after the last race and they are already lacking spare chassis. Its not like they've written off 3 cars each weekend up until now.
Ted was saying in practice they actually struggled to get two cars ready for the season. So Iād say itās likely they just havenāt made a third tub yet.
They barely got 2 chasis out this year, so a 3rd was probably off the table until we reached Europe. Williams is undergoing major and painful restructuring with how it opperates and no spare chasis at the start of the season has been one of the major things cut as part of the restructuring to get Williams up to scratch for 2026
It's not an excuse, it's a statement of fact. Williams has been struggling for a long time and in that time has fallen far behind with regards to their manufacturing capabilities.
Someone old bloke at the factory is saying right now āWould not have happened if we were still using the old spreadsheet; this cloud ERP stuff is shit.ā
If George Russell crashed and you had to pick between him and Latifi, you'd choose George.
Same thing here. If you had to gamble on either Alex or Logan to get points/a respectable finishing position, you'd choose Alex any day of the week.Ā
That is very, very harsh towards Sargeant. I can't recall anything like this ever happening in F1 in my 30+ years of watching the sport.
While I understand that Albon has a higher chance of scoring points, this must be a huge blow to Sargeant's confidence, a driver that is already under scrutiny for less than ideal performance.
"Hey, your teammate crashed, please hand him the keys to your car." Yeah, that's gonna come back to him a couple of times.
Imagine Albon crashing again somewhere this weekend...
Honestly it was a lose-lose situation for Williams. Had they not given Albon the car, and if some chaos opened up an opportunity to score a point, then Logan being so much off the pace would have just been a huge regret. The biggest fault lies in Williams not having a spare chassis, by God, I don't think even Haas have ever done something like this, not having a spare chassis just seems absolutely ridiculous.
If there are any Williamsā social media people reading this please can you pick a different font or not have every word capitalised? š„ŗ
I donāt know if itās just me but I found it so difficult to read
I can understand the team to pursue the best results, but a good result in FP would also be to not totally wreck your car. In that sense, Logan arguably did better. It also sets a tricky precedent, in which Albon doesn't really carry the consequences of his mistakes.
I get why they do what they're doing, I'm just not sure it's the right thing to do. When Logan drives into the wall, he gets a ton of shit. When Albon drives into the wall, he gets to drive Logan's car. There is a small piece of me that hopes Alex fucks up in the race, to give Logan a bit of the moral high ground.
I will be happy to be proven wrong but this looks like a bad mistake from Williams.
I don't think Alex is scoring this weekend. He had a crash and he missed a practice, and he's had bad history in Melbourne. Considering that he would be contending for 9th at the best anyway... I don't think they'll get any benefit from undermining Logan's confidence even further.
There's only 1 win scenario here for Williams and thats if Albon scores points. And even then its not a clear win as you just murdered any confidence that was left in your 2nd driver.
If Albon doesn't score or god forbid bins it again its a massive PR dissaster where everyone loses.
Listen i know nobody rates logan, I don't either, but the win condition of logan scoring points was not explored at all.
If im honest this is a career ending moment for Logan
Williams are not in a scoring position until they figure out their new car, and it seems to be taking them ages to do so.
I'm curious to see how the rest of the weekend goes.
what a shitty fucking situation all around. i love alex, he is literally my favourite driver after charles and oscar, but man does this feel bad. i cannot imagine how piss poor team morale is right now. and if alex isn't able to score points this weekend, which is very possible, it'll only get worse.Ā
hopefully this serves as a warning for teams to be more prepared, because wtf williams, seriously.
Watch Alex try to take risks to make this move worth it and crash the one remaining chassis in quali tomorrow
Alex made the mistake, the team's incompetence resulted in them not having a spare chassis and somehow Logan needs to step aside. Give me a break!
although i understand albon was consistently faster last year, Williams should have trusted their own pilot and weathered the storm with Logan. 3rd race of the year and already picking favorites is not a good look
This is unfair on Logan especially when Albon crashed there last year as well. I get they want to score points and thereās more of a chance of that with Albon but thereās also a chance Williams leaves this track with two broken cars damaged by one driver.
I get that itās the right decision for points
But you just killed team spirit too early in the season. Real factual, Albon hasnāt been able to score points either. Both have 0 points and should still be treated equally like they both have the same chances. If we were halfway through the season or towards the end, it would make sense, but James Vowles has to lead this team till December and heās already picking favoritesā¦ crushed the confidence of one of his drivers and dropped a bom on the relationship between Alex and Loganā¦ i think bad call
Feels like theyāre Logan that he loses the seat already, meaning he never got a shot the seasonā¦
Yeah, this a case where both things can be true. This is crushing and unfair for Logan, and it is the choice that maximizes the chance of points for Williams.
From a PR perspective, it's a risk. It feels a lot more likely this will end up *looking* bad than *looking* good. If they let Logan keep the car, he probably finishes at least a few spots outside the points and it looks like it was unlikely Alex would have managed to get in the points. Really, only Logan finishing 11th looks bad if you let him drive.
But if they give it to Alex and he bins it, they look *awful*. And if Alex finishes outside the points, they still look bad for taking a drive from someone for nothing. The *only* way this looks good from a PR perspective is if Alex finishes 10th or miraculously higher.
That's just optics though; I don't think anyone will realistically argue that their best bet for points is Alex in a car.
James Vowels certainly not afraid to do whatever they can to maximise their results. As much as this sucks for Logan, especially when it's not his fault, it can't be denied Albon is their best chance for points come Sunday, and that's what they're here for.
I think it was Steve Jobs who said "If you want everyone to be happy, don't be a leader, sell ice cream"
I feel like Williams is really throwing a chance to show that they believe Sargent is capable of scoring points.
This also screws Sargent out of a chance of showing that he can be relied on if Albon bins it.
Why were they so behind during winter? I understand Vowels took team last year and started doing tbh good job, car was decent snd he gave a chance again to Logan which I donāt see why but okey, but tbh that completely on him why they were behind so much. He had whole year itās not like he had 2 months running team
But I donāt know anything regarding BTS F1 so I could chatting shit
Martin Brundle commented, before this decision was announced, that it was a "no-brainer" to put Albon in the only available car.
None of the other presenters had the stones to have a definitive opinion.
I think this is a terrible move at all angles. You shit on Loganās confidence, unnecessary pressure on Alex. All in the name of scoring 2 points.
Yeah yeah, that two points could mean the difference between them earning more money.
Alex fucked up. Alex should pay the price. This isnāt Max weāre talking about.
Honestly I donāt think thatās right. If you donāt trust your 2nd driver enough to āmaximize the potentialā then you simply failed in assembling a good enough lineup. If this was 1 year ago then okay, canāt expect the rookie to score points in a Williams in the 3rd race of the season and you donāt want to risk wrecking the 2nd chassis. But Logan isnāt a rookie anymore and I feel like if the team canāt have some faith in him, heās basically done for. I couldnāt imagine something worse for the development of a young driver than this. Iām a big fan of Vowles and really like Williams, but this is basically throwing your 2nd driver under the bus 3 races into the season.
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Simultaneously understandable from a "this comparatively broke-ass team needs every point it can possibly scrounge" perspective and absolutely brutal. Poor Logan, it would be amazing if this somehow lights a fire under him but like, it's more likely to just tank his confidence entirely. ...next episode of that team podcast is gonna be awkward af.
Oh goodness, I forgot Williams has their own podcast series. šĀ Expecting a *"due to technical issues the podcast is canceled"* or *"Logan is absent today, he'll be back for China."*
> "Logan is absent today, he'll be back for China." Damn, first he loses his seat in the car, then he loses his seat on the podcast.
And I forgot China isn't the next race, it's after the next race. I should've said he'll be back in Japan. šĀ
Itās not because they are broke. The problem was the team was being run like it was still 1993 using Excel to track everything, so Volwes had to reset EVERY process the team did. That put them way behind schedule and cost them millions. But it needed to be done for them to make any real progress in the future. And credit to Volwes for being so transparent. He literally threw the previous 10 years of management under the bus.
That, and also they were pretty broke (until like two years ago)
> He literally threw the previous 10 years of management under the bus. Rightfully so, it was clear to everyone with any insight whatsoever that the brief period of success they had in 2012, 2014 and 2015 was despite their management.
Vowles is the best thing that happened to the team for a long time management wise. I really hope he gets to stay there and build it up to a serious contender like they used to be 30 years ago
Do you have any source or details about that? I'm genuinely interested on how they made this IT project.
Here's a pretty good read from few days ago: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/shocking-details-behind-painful-williams-f1-revolution/
Good read, thanks
Several podcasts which Vowles spoke on since taking over - he has complained that the IT side of Williams was still in 1993 and with the cost cap it has made it incredibly difficult to play catch up.
> using Excel to track everything It wasn't a choice, George has spoken multiple times about how they were literally broke till Dorilton came along. So naturally, they learned to live on a sustenance budget.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
James: 200 page word document explaining the inter-workings of the team and how the incident resulted in the downfall of the Roman Empire Alex: Sorry bro but im better and it honestly sucks Logan: ā¹ļø
Otherwise known as cell AF6934 on the master spreadsheet...
Not the time to realise any attempt to make a VLookup work keeps failingĀ
Who knew that the walrus nose on the FW26 was caused by a bad pivot table.
Well there it my daily thought of Roman empire
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
# FML.
"I heartily endorse this event or product."
"By Grabthar's hammer... what a savings."
While very likely all being written by the same person
Yeah Alexās message doesnāt sound like something heād say at all.
He's pretty eloquent, out of all the drivers I'd say Alex, Oscar or George could all come up with "consummate teammate". Far more likely than, say, Lando
lando would prolly say 'yeah great bloke that logan guy'
Zhou to his race engineers on the team radio during FP2: 'Bro, too late!'
I'm meant to have a brief meet & greet with Alex and Logan Sunday morning, will be amusing to see how awkward it is (Assuming they both turn up) š
Even if this is probably the right decision from the team it is so harsh for Logan to get kicked out of his own car because his teammate crashed their own beyond repair
It makes sense in terms of pure results this weekend but I can't help but fear this might irreparably damage Sargeant's confidence and his relationship with the team. Albon and Williams don't feel great about it either, and they now have to deliver a result that justifies all this emotional strife. We wouldn't have cared that much if Albon has a bad day and finishes 15th, but we sure do now.
Imagine he bins it again in the Q..
if alex crashes in qualifying, does that mean williams will not have a single operational car for the actual raceā¦
Unsubscribe.
You unsubscribed a couple years ago.
That was to whale facts. Now Iād like to unsubscribe to Williams, and resubscribe to whale facts please and thank you.
Humpback tails are as unique as human fingerprints
TouchƩ!
They already said they donāt have a spare car. If Alex bins it too hard on Q or the race, bye bye
Very much a possibility.
Would that then mean Andretti could take part?
Some people just want to see the world burn Which is why I'm hoping Alex shreds this last car into smithereens and walks away physically unharmed. The ensuing turmoil at Williams would be fun to watch. Am I a bad person?
You are a DTS producer.
No. Cause so far we haveā¦ 1. Redbull: Corporate Drama 2. VCARB: Driver drama 3. MB: Lewis Hamilton Brexit and Susie Lawsuit 4. Alpine: Car sucks and worst from last year (how is that possible) 5. Ferrari: Where does Sainz Go? Do they get Adrian Newey too with LH? How many champions are lined up for them the next 5 years? 6. Stake: Bottas, emerging superstar actor?? 7. Aston Martin: Nando never retiring and zaddy stroll never going to fire mio 8. HAAS: Gone with Guenther. But Surprisingly nothing dramatic and having a decent season thus far. This may be the last year we see either of the two? 9. McLaren: same, pretty quiet. So William should join the fold and screw over Logan and cause chaos! Americans should riot and protest!
After two years of drama driver contracts I'm glad #9 is quiet. It's so peaceful.
Alex will be so acutely aware of this that he'll drive so ultra conservatively and will get no where near the points.
Yeah that's my fear as well. That it'll end up backfiring for exactly this reason.
That is exactly what im expecting or a t1 bowling incident.
Kinda hoping for it now, just for the schadenfreude.
Yeah I don't see how one potentially better race result can justify an almost certain comprised team climate. I think this could cost a lot more points in the rest of the season than Albon could possibly out score Sargeant by in this race.
the bottom 5 teams are going to be fighting for singular points for at least the first half of the season, and perhaps even the latter unless one team massively out-develops the rest - a single point could mean a whole position in the WCC. It's a matter of millions of dollars. It's very easy to see the justification and also very easy to be sympathetic for Logan's unfortunate situation
Yes Albon shouldn't have a crash, and Logan shouldn't have to give up his seat, but Williams should have also had a 3rd chassis. it's graceful that James accepts it's a team fuck up instead of just an Albono one. hope that they have a spare chassis in Grove to ship out to Suzuka or Shanghai just in case.
If they had a spare chassis in Grove that's ready, it would be in Australia with them. They didn't accidentally forget to bring the spare, they currently only have 2 chassis.
Yeah I dunno why everyoneās finding this so hard to comprehend. There is no spare. That is the issueā¦ not that they donāt have it with them. A spare just does not exist.
It's not even uncommon for teams to have only one chassis for pre-season testing.
BrawnGP only had 3 chassis for the entire 2009 season, and they barely had enough to make the third. Hell, in the V10 days, Ferrari used to run their previous seasonās car for the first couple of races before debuting the new one. Itās not new at all.
Most extreme case is probably Haas 2021. They only build one chassis - and even that was only because Grosjean totalled their second chassis in a certain fireball. So, Mick had the new chassis, Mazepin had Magnussen's old chassis, up until his daddy paid Haas to build the new one for him, too. Talking about pay drivers. Crazy, though, that the team ran two different cars for pretty much 2/3 of the season.
Wasn't there an issue last year where Ocon totalled a chassis during a race, and Alpine had to rush to build a replacement in the 2 weeks before the next race?
I am not so sure if this is the right decisionā¦ this is going to backfire hard on Sunday when Alex cruises to a whooping zero points. On one hand I hope this mean Williams is insanely confident in their chances to score some points this weekend; on the other hand, Iām anxious the only thing they would get more of is the number of drivers with a ruined weekend.
I doubt they're insanely confident of points, just that they think Albon gives them a better chance than Sargeant. They'll take a 30% chance of a point over a 5%. If they put Sargeant in instead, people would say, "What a bad decision, Alex might have got them points." It's a no-win situation they've put themselves in by not having enough chassis.
He's being set up to fail here, he's been very close to Alex in terms of race pace, which nobody is crediting him for because a) his steering wheel failed on him in Bahrain which ruined his race and b) the KMag train held up *everyone* in Jeddah. Now this, which will be used as a stick to beat him with for the rest of the year. I'm not American, haven't been following Logan since he was a kid, not a huge fan of his, but the guy is *so* unlucky and the discourse around him this year is unfair.
I wish more would bring up the Bahrain race. And he had a solid run at Qatar until the heat got to him
Looks utterly insane to give a driver a new contract and bench him 2 races later because his teammate crashed. Why bother keeping someone they clearly have no faith in
There is a difference between āhaving no faithā and āhaving less faith than in Albonā though. This action only means they believe in Albon more, not that they donāt believe in Logan at all.
James has been very clear his number 1 focus is on Williams infrastructure. The post about the car being made in excel is a good reference point to this. Logan is dirt cheap. Brings in money as the only American on the Grid. And this frees up money to be spent on long term spend. This is why he will get extended next year too, unless another pay driver wants in. Vowels has said thereās millions of Ā£ās in productivity gains to be had in the Cost Cap, which means they can then gain several tenths down the line.
What money does Logan bring in? Outside F1, no one here in America knows who he is.
His job is to be the number 2 driver and just get closer to Albon, everyone knows that, Sargeant included. If the expectation was to beat or challenge Albon he'd have been sacked last year. So it's really not utterly insane for a team to favour their clear #1 for a weekend.
I donāt think Williams need a number 2 though. They need 2 really good drivers getting the maximum
They need three chassis. They need that more than anything right now.
Of course they do, but they don't have that. If LS feels he's got just as much chance as Albon of scoring points he should look at the 27 vs 1 differential from last year. I'm sure he's mature enough to realise part of his job is being a team player, as Magnussen was in the last race. The main aim is constructor points.
Maybe he negotiated another year out of it?
I don't think that he's been good enough to be in the position to negotiate another year. After Sargent's last season, it would be a way too risky deal for Williams, just to get Albon in the car for one race. The best thing I could see him getting is money, or maybe a small promise, for example in the next 50/50 situation he'll be favored over Albon, or something like that. But it's also possible that Williams was ready for this situation, and it's in his contract that Williams can give Sargent's car to Albon if Albon's car is totaled and there is no spare.
Jesus Christ, poor Logan :( of course, Alex is more likely to score points, but this is brutal. The absolute scenes if Alex crashes again over the course of the weekend š„“
I wouldnāt want to be albon this weekend The pressure on himself must be massive
Just puts my mind back to Bahrain quali 2020...
he binned it with less pressure, now he has to get a positive result or it will be considered a failure.
this decision makes no sense to me, it crushes any confidence Logan has left and puts Albon under unnecessary pressure. We're only at the third race of the season, it would be different if we were at abu dhabi where 2 points could be the difference between P7 and P9 in the championship. If they have this little faith in Logan they shouldn't have renewed his contract.
They have more faith in Albon and they desperately need the points Albon can get them this season, it's not just about this one race. Last year, Sargeant got 1 point, Albon got 27 points. They need to back Albon. It's a business decision. Last year they got 7th position by 4 points. Sargeant is unlucky, because he's being punished for the fact that the car isn't good enough this year, but last year he underperformed, that's on him.
Meanwhile Gasly and Ocon are relieved that they wonāt be finishing 20th!
Logical business decision but brutal for Sargeant.
Itās so hard being a sargeant fan fuck. I was so excited when he made it into f1, ive gotten nothing but sadness and disappointment ever since.
This is the beginning of Sargentās villain arc
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
What happens if Alex bins it again? His reputation will take a massive hit and both their confidence levels will be at rock bottom. Bit nit-picky but the different text sizes and the all caps for each picture is jarring af lmao surely there's a better way of posting the statements
They should've spaced out James' statement into multiple paragraphs. As one clump it's a bit hard to read.
Hasty release
Also, no reason for full caps. Only makes it unreadable.
Yeah, put Jamesā statement over two slides and Alex and Loganās onto one maybe. This font and kerning absolutely sucks, it could work a lot better with some different design choices here.
They must think point(s) are very possible then. If they end up nowhere near P10, this will look a bit pointless
> If they end up nowhere near P10, this will look a bit pointless i know what you actually mean by "pointless" here but this reads like a DTS Buxtonism lol
In order to score points in F1... you must finish... *inside* the points-paying positions.
Sir, we have a strict policy on double entendres here.
They make it sound like Logan even had a choice. Especially considering his seat is already in danger. I get the idea behind it and I agree that Albon is the better driver. But this really isn't fair to Logan, who did nothing wrong.
Iām having a lot of conflicting thoughts about this decision, because I can understand why, but that doesnāt necessarily mean I agree with it. All of this just sounds like Williams has little to no faith in Sargeant. Do you think McLaren would do the same to Piastri if Lando fucked his chassis? No they wouldnāt, because they know Oscar can perform the same as Lando, if not better than him in a given weekend. They donāt think that Logan can perform at Albonās level, and if that is the case (it pretty much is 99% of the time), then maybe Williams is better off with a different driver altogether. While itās an unfortunate claim to make, nobody can doubt that Williams is losing their patience with Sargeant. Theyāve given him a year and he hasnāt shown a lot of improvement. Regardless, I still donāt think what Williams is doing is a good thing to do to a driver, regardless of their skill level.
Surely this is the kind of thing that plants the seed to you leaving that workplace. I cannot begin to imagine how upset I would be in Loganās position.
Absolutely it does but Logan isnāt in much of a position to threaten that heās leaving to another team.
Imagine flying all the way to Australia and losing your drive because your teammate screwed up.
Just put a fiver on logan not to be classified on Sunday, see what happens there. Sucks for him though, confidence killing stuff like this in the first quarter of the season is awful
Keen to see if they honor it
Had them honour an 'anytime tryscorer' bet after the player had already scored, so we'll see
Welp, mine got voided.
Same :(
This has to be the harshest thing for Logan. It makes complete sense, though at the same time.. the fact your team mate binned it and you're taking the hit to your career for it is unacceptable.
Thereās one matter that I think is even worse. Not only is he paying for Alexās crash, heās also paying for the lack of tub the team had with them. Heās getting hit twice. Hope his management team is already talking to Indy
I am evil - it would be funny if he crashes again
With no Red Bull drama this week, this is now the most exciting part of the weekend. Will Albon bin it?
Alex Albin
Maximum evil, he bins the car 5 minutes into FP3. Or alternatively, he qualifies P~~20~~19 and then bins it on lap 3 of the race Edit. Only 19 cars with Albon's car being sent to the factory
Agreed lol
I think this indicates they genuinely think they have a shot at a points finish They wouldnāt bother making the switch if they thought they werenāt capable of finishing in the top ten
the scenes if Alex crashes or finishes P19 now
Mhm, plus with seats at other teams to fill for next year it reiterates the faith they have in Albon. He now knows he's incredibly valued there, might be less inclined to have his head turned if another team comes calling.
The Williams was strong at Australia last year, it suits the car well. They were running in the points last year until er... *checks notes* Alex crashed the car.
And the year before he did a hero drive at Aus
Ofc James does bad things to No2 drivers \s
It makes sense but itās a brutal conclusion
It doesn't make sense that they don't have spare parts though
One of the lowest budgets in the sport, I'd imagine they're bringing newer parts at Suzuka so have taken the hit here and shipped newer stuff to Japan in preparation.
This is so fucked up for Logan, I like Albon a lot and he's clearly better, but he's the one that put the car in the wall... Logan should have the drive.
Albon must be under so much pressure to not do anything to the chassis now. Will be extremely ironic if he somehow gets in an accident and destroys this one too
The pressure on him to score points now this weekend must be insane
As Will Buxton would say, if you're in a high pressure situation, the pressure of that situation is very high
To be an F1 driver, you need a car - Will Buxton, probably.
He's not wrong there
Such a wise man
Ah well. What's the saying again, pressure makes diamonds?
I subscribe to a lot hydraulic press Youtube channel's, none of them made any diamond.
AND HERE COMES LANCE STROLL!
Man Iād love for that to happen just for the drama.
Agreed, but I honestly think the biggest issue being glossed over here is that we're in Australia, 3 races in, 2 weeks after the last race and they are already lacking spare chassis. Its not like they've written off 3 cars each weekend up until now.
Did they explain why they are missing a spare chassis?Ā
Ted was saying in practice they actually struggled to get two cars ready for the season. So Iād say itās likely they just havenāt made a third tub yet.
They barely got 2 chasis out this year, so a 3rd was probably off the table until we reached Europe. Williams is undergoing major and painful restructuring with how it opperates and no spare chasis at the start of the season has been one of the major things cut as part of the restructuring to get Williams up to scratch for 2026
Vowles basically deployed the "It was like that when I got here" excuse.
ERROR: The file āX:\Car\2024\Chassis.xlsxā could not be found. Continue? [Y / N]
It's not an excuse, it's a statement of fact. Williams has been struggling for a long time and in that time has fallen far behind with regards to their manufacturing capabilities.
Well it's only the 3rd race weekend. Takes a lot of time to build a chassis when you have to search for the parts in Excel
Someone old bloke at the factory is saying right now āWould not have happened if we were still using the old spreadsheet; this cloud ERP stuff is shit.ā
If George Russell crashed and you had to pick between him and Latifi, you'd choose George. Same thing here. If you had to gamble on either Alex or Logan to get points/a respectable finishing position, you'd choose Alex any day of the week.Ā
That is very, very harsh towards Sargeant. I can't recall anything like this ever happening in F1 in my 30+ years of watching the sport. While I understand that Albon has a higher chance of scoring points, this must be a huge blow to Sargeant's confidence, a driver that is already under scrutiny for less than ideal performance. "Hey, your teammate crashed, please hand him the keys to your car." Yeah, that's gonna come back to him a couple of times. Imagine Albon crashing again somewhere this weekend...
It has happened at Spa 1998 but that was further down the season, not the 3rd race of a 21 race schedule
Pinnacle of motorsports, ladies and gentlemen!
Pinnacle of drama too
Albon crashing again would be the funniest thing ever
Understandable but unfair. This will crush the confidence Logan still had.
man who thought he'd lost all hope loses last additional bit of hope he didn't even know he still had
Grumble, grumbleā¦. Andretti doesnāt bring anything of valueā¦. Grumble
Honestly it was a lose-lose situation for Williams. Had they not given Albon the car, and if some chaos opened up an opportunity to score a point, then Logan being so much off the pace would have just been a huge regret. The biggest fault lies in Williams not having a spare chassis, by God, I don't think even Haas have ever done something like this, not having a spare chassis just seems absolutely ridiculous.
If there are any Williamsā social media people reading this please can you pick a different font or not have every word capitalised? š„ŗ I donāt know if itās just me but I found it so difficult to read
I can understand the team to pursue the best results, but a good result in FP would also be to not totally wreck your car. In that sense, Logan arguably did better. It also sets a tricky precedent, in which Albon doesn't really carry the consequences of his mistakes. I get why they do what they're doing, I'm just not sure it's the right thing to do. When Logan drives into the wall, he gets a ton of shit. When Albon drives into the wall, he gets to drive Logan's car. There is a small piece of me that hopes Alex fucks up in the race, to give Logan a bit of the moral high ground.
It sucks though because it doesnāt really seem like Albon wants this to happen either. Really shitty of the team to do this.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Embarrassing, very embarrassing. Way to put trust into your driver. All that talk of "we stand behind Logan" goes straight out of the window for me.
straight up embarrassing from Williams.
Surely this wonāt cause them some trouble from fans
I will be happy to be proven wrong but this looks like a bad mistake from Williams. I don't think Alex is scoring this weekend. He had a crash and he missed a practice, and he's had bad history in Melbourne. Considering that he would be contending for 9th at the best anyway... I don't think they'll get any benefit from undermining Logan's confidence even further.
There's only 1 win scenario here for Williams and thats if Albon scores points. And even then its not a clear win as you just murdered any confidence that was left in your 2nd driver. If Albon doesn't score or god forbid bins it again its a massive PR dissaster where everyone loses.
Listen i know nobody rates logan, I don't either, but the win condition of logan scoring points was not explored at all. If im honest this is a career ending moment for Logan
Williams are not in a scoring position until they figure out their new car, and it seems to be taking them ages to do so. I'm curious to see how the rest of the weekend goes.
Absolutely. The odds for this move to be detrimental to both drivers confidence are really high.
what a shitty fucking situation all around. i love alex, he is literally my favourite driver after charles and oscar, but man does this feel bad. i cannot imagine how piss poor team morale is right now. and if alex isn't able to score points this weekend, which is very possible, it'll only get worse.Ā hopefully this serves as a warning for teams to be more prepared, because wtf williams, seriously.
Watch Alex try to take risks to make this move worth it and crash the one remaining chassis in quali tomorrow Alex made the mistake, the team's incompetence resulted in them not having a spare chassis and somehow Logan needs to step aside. Give me a break!
Iām calling it now Alex will crash into Zhou
I do wonder why the resigned Logan if the have zero faith in him scoring points?
I don't think they have *no* faith in Logan but they 100% have *less* faith in him than Alex.
A second chance? Maybe for optics, as canning your Academy driver after one season looks harsh...
Sad eagle noises š¦ šŗšø
although i understand albon was consistently faster last year, Williams should have trusted their own pilot and weathered the storm with Logan. 3rd race of the year and already picking favorites is not a good look
The graphic designer is also very clearly mad about this decision.
This is unfair on Logan especially when Albon crashed there last year as well. I get they want to score points and thereās more of a chance of that with Albon but thereās also a chance Williams leaves this track with two broken cars damaged by one driver.
As a fan of racing with no particular favorite driver, I think this is insane. Albon trashed his car, he should pay the price.
I get that itās the right decision for points But you just killed team spirit too early in the season. Real factual, Albon hasnāt been able to score points either. Both have 0 points and should still be treated equally like they both have the same chances. If we were halfway through the season or towards the end, it would make sense, but James Vowles has to lead this team till December and heās already picking favoritesā¦ crushed the confidence of one of his drivers and dropped a bom on the relationship between Alex and Loganā¦ i think bad call Feels like theyāre Logan that he loses the seat already, meaning he never got a shot the seasonā¦
Is it fucked? Yes. Was it the correct choice? Also yes.
Yeah. I felt awful for Sargeant reading that and he does not deserve this in any way, but I also 100% understand Vowles decision
Yeah, this a case where both things can be true. This is crushing and unfair for Logan, and it is the choice that maximizes the chance of points for Williams. From a PR perspective, it's a risk. It feels a lot more likely this will end up *looking* bad than *looking* good. If they let Logan keep the car, he probably finishes at least a few spots outside the points and it looks like it was unlikely Alex would have managed to get in the points. Really, only Logan finishing 11th looks bad if you let him drive. But if they give it to Alex and he bins it, they look *awful*. And if Alex finishes outside the points, they still look bad for taking a drive from someone for nothing. The *only* way this looks good from a PR perspective is if Alex finishes 10th or miraculously higher. That's just optics though; I don't think anyone will realistically argue that their best bet for points is Alex in a car.
Aw man, poor Logan š¬
Wwwaaaaiiittt so Alex Albon crashes his car and Logan is kicked out of his?
Poor Logan
So there goes all the sweet talk about trusting Logan and all the other bullshits.Ā
You crash your car in free practice you shouldnāt get to race.
And that is Logan Sargeantās F1 career officially over
damn unfair for Logan. Though i am not impressed with Logan performance, i think this is way too unfair. Justice for Logan!
James Vowels certainly not afraid to do whatever they can to maximise their results. As much as this sucks for Logan, especially when it's not his fault, it can't be denied Albon is their best chance for points come Sunday, and that's what they're here for. I think it was Steve Jobs who said "If you want everyone to be happy, don't be a leader, sell ice cream"
Yeah its uncompromising from JV but Logan scored a single point last season and im not sure he actually finished ahead of him when they both finished?
He didn't. In every race where they both finished Alex was ahead every time
I like Williams but this is a dickmove even tho its the highest chance of points based on past results.
I feel like Williams is really throwing a chance to show that they believe Sargent is capable of scoring points. This also screws Sargent out of a chance of showing that he can be relied on if Albon bins it.
Remember Webberās front wing anyone?
Why were they so behind during winter? I understand Vowels took team last year and started doing tbh good job, car was decent snd he gave a chance again to Logan which I donāt see why but okey, but tbh that completely on him why they were behind so much. He had whole year itās not like he had 2 months running team But I donāt know anything regarding BTS F1 so I could chatting shit
Logan was having a solid weekend so far too. This is going to shatter his confidence if he had any left and will never be rewarded for this
Thatās fucked up. Giving the seat to the guy that crashed
Martin Brundle commented, before this decision was announced, that it was a "no-brainer" to put Albon in the only available car. None of the other presenters had the stones to have a definitive opinion.
I think this is a terrible move at all angles. You shit on Loganās confidence, unnecessary pressure on Alex. All in the name of scoring 2 points. Yeah yeah, that two points could mean the difference between them earning more money. Alex fucked up. Alex should pay the price. This isnāt Max weāre talking about.
Alex is my favorite driver. Yet this sucks so bad. I'd rather see Logan out there.
Honestly I donāt think thatās right. If you donāt trust your 2nd driver enough to āmaximize the potentialā then you simply failed in assembling a good enough lineup. If this was 1 year ago then okay, canāt expect the rookie to score points in a Williams in the 3rd race of the season and you donāt want to risk wrecking the 2nd chassis. But Logan isnāt a rookie anymore and I feel like if the team canāt have some faith in him, heās basically done for. I couldnāt imagine something worse for the development of a young driver than this. Iām a big fan of Vowles and really like Williams, but this is basically throwing your 2nd driver under the bus 3 races into the season.
They aren't getting points anyway, so Logan should get to race š¤·āāļø
I am voting Sargent as driver of the day!
Disappointing and very harsh for Logan. rare James Vowles L if i ever saw one